Automating Processes

That Pune hosts a number of innovative IT companies is no longer a secret. So
the success of another Pune-based company, Ensim Corporation, a leading player
in hosting automation software, does not come as a big surprise. Ensim, however,
cannot be categorized as a pure Pune-based company. Headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California, its only offshore development center (ODC) is located in the
outskirts of Pune. This reflects a trend not uncommon to this fast growing IT
hub: the ODCs of global players such as BMC Software, eGain and Selectica are
also based in Pune.

However, unlike these other companies, Ensim's Indian connection is not
just restricted to the presence of its ODC in Pune. Two of its four co-founders,
Cornell University professors Rosen Sharma and S Keshav, are of Indian origin.
Another Indian, legendary angel investor Kanwal Rekhi had taken over its reins
during the days of economic downturn in post 2001, when Ensim's growth curve
too had taken a nosedive. True to his reputation, Rekhi recharged this company
on its current growth path with his turnaround skills. Even its current CEO,
Sandip Gupta, is of Indian origin, a REC Allahabad and NewYork Stern School
alumnus, who earlier had worked with L&T, TCS, and Systime.

Growing up

Like many other Silicon Valley startups by people of Indian origin, the
$15.5 mn Ensim (its revenues in December 2003) too has been fortunate in
attracting venture capital funding, primarily from Indo-American entrepreneurs.
Till date, it has received some $85 mn in private funding from leading Silicon
Valley investors

Sandip Gupta  CEO, Ensim

In 2000, Ensim acquired Pune-based Cybermedia Software. This acquisition has
helped Ensim in establishing a vital center for its Asia Pacific engineering and
support activities. This also partly explains the choice of Pune for its ODC.
Since then, Ensim has invested over $5 mn in its Pune center, which has a
100-strong development team, to support global development operations. "And
it has not been a bad choice," comments CEO Sandip Gupta.

Its offerings

Some of its popular offerings include its flagship product ServerXchange, a
hosted operations platform; AppXchange, which, in conjunction with ServerXchange,
gives users access to a library of Web enabled software; WEBppliance Pro for
Linux, a control panel aimed at hosting providers; and the latest Ensim Unify, a
hosting OSS for service providers. But what makes these something special and
unique? "Unlike some of our competitors like Sphera, Systemfusion and Plesk,
we provide a comprehensive product line of management solutions for each stage
of the hosting life cycle," informs Gupta. Sure, this might sound like a
standard vendor claim. Jeff Goldman, a Silicon Valley analyst, gives it a
clearer perspective: "Ensim is to ISPs and Webhosting firms, what the
automated telephone switch was to telephone service providers." Ensim, he
says, automates many processes, for instance, when a bunch of smart IT guys,
acting like operators, field phone calls, set up new customers, do a lot of
manual operations-"the functions are begging to be automated."
Automation also allowed telephone service providers to offer additional services
like caller ID and voicemail.

Goldman sees ServerXchange and AppXchange as linked offerings. "And it
is not just for web hosting," he adds. "It is a platform for running a
hosting operation, turning ISPs into ASPs-allowing them not only to cut costs,
but also to grow their revenue opportunities on a per-subscriber basis."

Ensim solutions have virtually become the industry standard, Gupta claims
with justifiable pride. More than half of the US service providers and about 80
Tier 1 service providers worldwide rely on Ensim to efficiently deliver hosting
services to their customers. Available for both Linux and Windows platforms,
Ensim's product line includes control panels, virtual private servers, server
management, as well as Microsoft Exchange hosting software.

Partnerships

Further enhancing Ensim solutions is a vast community of software partners
who offer hundreds of complementary third-party products, which are also
endorsed worldwide by more than 10,000 small to medium-size hosting companies
and resellers. Says Rob Greenwalt, CEO of Advanced Web Hosting and Design, a
hosting company with more than 800 customers in the SMB segment: "Within a
month to two months after we went on board with Ensim, we probably tripled our
dedicated server base."

Endorsements

Ensim partners with the many players to develop and market hosting automation
solutions to service providers. The list includes HP, Microsoft and Sun, as well
as niche players like BillMax, Halcyon Software, Incognito Software, Miva
Corporation, RLX Technologies, RSA Security, Urchin Software and Verisign. In
fact, its latest product Ensim Unify-the first hosting OSS for service
providers-has been developed in partnership with Microsoft. "Ensim and
Microsoft have combined the flexibility and agility of .NET technologies,
including Active Directory, Windows Server and Visual Studio .NET, with Ensim's
proven hosting process automation technology to develop the new OSS
infrastructure for service providers," explains Gupta.

Unify's biggest endorsement, however, came this month when it was adopted
by Siemens Solutions1, as the hosting automation platform for its messaging and
collaboration offerings. With Ensim's Unify, Siemens is now able to
effectively offer Exchange 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, and additional
add-on email solutions as hosted services. Says Jonathan Evans, head of
marketing of Siemens Solution1: "Microsoft recommended Ensim, and upon
evaluation, we were confident that it was the right partner for managing and
delivering hosted services." Ensim brought a deep expertise in Hosted
Exchange 2003, he adds, and their technical team was with us every step of the
way in implementing a complex solution. Recently, the company has made its India
debut, bagging Rediff as its first major Indian client.

Rajneesh De